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This paper presents the qualitative content analysis of claims in mainstream media made around crises related to immigration at specific borderscapes of the European Union located in two Southern European Member States, namely Italy and Spain. The two selected border crisis cases are the tragic shipwreck of Lampedusa, which occurred on the 3rd of October 2013, and the Melilla massacre, which occurred on the 24th of June 2022. I argue that both events were pivotal in shaping the view (local, national and international) on these borders given their broader mediatic reach, which gave these borderlands unprecedented attention, despite being only two of the numerous tragedies that took place on the Central and Western Mediterranean migratory routes since the early 2000s. The aim of the analysis is thus to compare claims made in the media around the mentioned events on these specific borderscapes, peculiar areas shaped by transnational flows that have existed and developed beyond the constructed idea of the national state and its clear-cut borders. Indeed, I argue that what happens on these borderscapes and its consequential media representation profoundly shapes the way we think about these territories, migration flows, and migrants at the national and European levels. The aim is thus to detect potential similarities and differences in how these events are narrated through claims made in the media. These claims and their comparative analysis give us an idea of how these events and these territories are perceived in the two member states and then translated at the European level.